Picture by David Hardman
Sometimes the appetite of journalists for the trivial – or the appetite that journalists think the public have for the trivial – is breath-taking. This morning, considerable air time was devoted on radio to Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to sing the British national anthem at a service to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.. This was seen as disrespectful. My own view would be that since Corbyn is a republican, it would have been hypocritical to sing the words of God Save The Queen, so maybe better disrespect than hypocrisy.
But let’s pull back a bit and ask: what would have changed if Corbyn had sung God Save The Queen? Nothing, really. You could be a spy committed to the downfall of the monarchy and global capitalism and sing the anthem, and it wouldn’t make a whit of difference. Some of the biggest eejits (hello John Redwood) have ploughed into national anthems and remained appalling eejits when they emerged at the other end. You may approve or disapprove of Jeremy Corbyn, in which case you should be focusing on the policies he advocates and the worth they have.
Two days ago we saw something similar, when Gerry Adams was interviewed on RTÉ by Claire Byrne. In the course of the interview she battened onto the question “Why do you keep saying you weren’t in the IRA?”.Adams, you’ll almost certainly recall, has always maintained he was not a member of the IRA but that he was an unambiguous supporter of the IRA. Yet Claire Byrne thought it important to go over this well-trod ground yet again. Why?
As with Corbyn’s anthem, what difference would it make if Gerry Adams were to say “Yes, I was in the IRA”? Would his critics then say: “Ah, at last we have an honest man leading Sinn Féin!” Or would they then move on to criticise other matters such as his beard or his teeth? You’ll often hear people say “But of course he was in the IRA. If he lies to us about this, we clearly can’t trust a word out of his mouth”. In which case, maybe someone should ask the interrogators if they have ever told a lie. If they answer truthfully that they have – everyone at some point has told a lie about something – then we could say “In that case, we can’t trust a word out of your mouth, go home, give up your media interrogator job and become a mime artist”.
The truth is that criticism of Corbyn’s non-singing of the British national anthem, or the clothes he wears, or his beard, are obviously superficial to the brink of ludicrous. Journalists shouldn’t be wasting time talking about them, and they know it. Likewise with Gerry Adams’s being in or not in the IRA – it’s a colourful distraction from real and important matters such as the collapse of Stormont and the inaction of the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the British Prime Minister David Cameron over a key aspect of an international treaty of which they are the co-guarantors. Jeremy Corbyn’s non-singing of the anthem or Gerry Adams’s membership or non-membership of the IRA have all the journalistic importance of “Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster”.
As Adams himself said the other week vis a vis whether he was or wasnt: ‘ I don’t lose much sleep over it…..and neither should anyone else….’
But of course he was in the IRA. If he lies to us about this, we clearly can’t trust a word out of his mouth”. In which case, maybe someone should ask the interrogators if they have ever told a lie. If they answer truthfully that they have – everyone at some point has told a lie about something – then we could say “In that case, we can’t trust a word out of your mouth, go home, give up your media interrogator job and become a mime artist”.
Everybody has told a lie few have joined sectarian killing groups and commanded them. Good attempt at whataboutery though!
But the charge that’s levelled is not that he joined ‘sectarian killing groups and commanded them’- the charge was and always is ‘You told/are telling a lie’. Let him/her without sin/lie….
Neill, I’m assuming your referring to the IRA when you say “sectarian killing groups”. Of course the IRA was a military structure whose main purpose was to kill, just like the British Army, though I think we can both agree the British Army has killed FAR more people, innumerable amounts of innocent people, throughout its history than the IRA ever did.
The problem I have with your statement is the word “sectarian”. The IRA wasn’t sectarian. The evidence? The IRA’s own Chief of Staff was a Protestant, a man called Ivor Bell. The IRA had Protestant members. The whole ideology of Irish Republicanism was founded mainly by Protestants. That doesn’t sound like a sectarian organisation to me. Take another republican group, the INLA, one of its founding members was a Protestant whose father was in the British Army and even a friend of Ian Paisley! Ronnie Bunting was his name. The IRA’s main targets were the RUC/UDR/B Specials/British Army/Loyalists, etc Their religion has nothing to do with it, it didn’t matter if they were Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, etc they were the IRA’s target due to the fact they were servants of the British state.
Unionists/Loyalists on the other hand were definitely sectarian. Unionism being dominated by the anti-Catholic Orange Order is proof of this. Loyalists targeted Catholic civilians solely because they were Catholic. The Unionist state discriminated on the basis of religion. The Civil Rights Movement was organised solely for the purpose of civil and equal rights for Catholics, not for Irish Unity, yet this peaceful, non-violent movement was viciously attacked and put down by Unionists.
This argument of “each side is as bad as each other” is nonsense and inaccurate.
This argument of “each side is as bad as each other” is nonsense and inaccurate.
Only of course if you want to argue that the IRA where good guys. Ryan do you believe they were good guys or were they terrorists?
Do you think George Washington and Co were terrorists, neill? Or the French Resistance?
Why are you trying to compare George Washington and the French resistance with the IRA they are clearly not similar at all.
Do you think the UDA or the UVF were terrorists then?
Terrorism, neill, is a methodology, not a political philosophy
It was no doubt of some importance to the hamster whether or not it actually happened!
corbyn bends the knee and takes the oath,hes not a republican.
That’s a good point, billy .It’s hard to be a republican in a government within a monarchy that’s set up to remind you that you plebs are only here under Her Maj’s sufferance.Still …he’ll never get a chance to change anything unless he plays the game by subterfuge .He only has to pretend to be singing the national anthem in future and that’ll be okay for the optics.He doesn’t even have to make a sound unless he is closely miked…or he might sing different words under his breath , possibly .Maybe it’ll start a debate for an anthem that isn’t actually an awful dirge and actually really reflects the diversity of national opinion in the UK. Not everyone is a royalist , after all….and even the royalists aren’t being served properly with this awful outdated and outmoded tune and lyrics.
paddy
It is the age old dilemma of power and principles.
To effect change you usually have to make some compromise somewhere.
It is much easier to remain aloof in a pressure group say (or on a blog) and keep ones principles than to get ones hands dirty in office.
The question is what can you compromise and what like Sir Thomas More must be kept as that little area where one rules oneself.
Gio …i’m just thinking of the absurdity of asking an atheist{Corbyn} who doesn’t believe in gods of any kind…. to sing a song , in praise of a monarch ,which he believes to be undemocratically elected to her position.I give you “God Save The Queen”. Now I actually believe that the man should be allowed his opinion and his disbelief,, which by the way , makes a lot of rational sense to me seeing as i don’t believe in gods either nor that kings and queens are somehow magical beings on a pedestal above all others…. with a hotline to that non-existant god. Yes…i can understand that Corbyn, like , i’m sure , a lot of other citizens everywhere , have to play a covert game just to exist in a world full of people who believe in this kind of magic but he does represent quite a lot of people who know that a game is being played and are a bit fed up that they are forced to hide their cynicism or pretend that these things are not nonsense.
paddy
I agree of course with your view about the absurdity of it all, though one could argue he has chosen to put himself in this position.
He does represent people who agree with him but he also represents those who don’t and if he was Prime Minister he would represent the whole country.
I am sure Martin McGuinness had no strong desire to meet the Queen,but he did it because he was trying to represent the broad spectrum of people here.
If you had to sing the anthem and do a bit of scraping and bowing in order to bring about radical reforms would you be prepared to do it?
Ah, but did you notice whether his fingers were crossed behind his back?
Only one adjective fittingly describes the topic you focus upon today, Esteemed Blogmeister: the o-adjective: Orwellian.
Take this Claire Byrne creature. Who, she? Well might one ask. Look no further than the first verse of a Waylon Jennings hit-song by the great Shel Silverstein, a songwriter whom one imagines would have got the thumbs up rather than the bum’s rush from George O:
‘It’s the world’s gone crazy cotillion
The ladies are dancing alone;
‘Cos the sidemen all wanna be frontmen
And the frontmen all wanna go home’.
In other words, Claire Byrne is a (gulp) celebrity. Not just a wannabe celeb, but a fully-fledged celeb (alleged). One knows this because her dulcet Queen’s County tones (a contradiction in terms? Ne-ver !) are to be heard at regular intervals on the RTE station at the mo doing promo for a ‘nation-wide coffee morning thingy on such-and-such date’.
‘The Johnnycomelatelys are coming in early
The early birds showing up late;
The straight men all wanna be funny
The funnymen all wanna get straight’.
Don’t get Perkie wrong ! Good lord. That would never do. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with celebrity qua celebrity (the world really could well do with a few more G. Bests, G.J. Reeves and G.Orwells) just the unearned type.
This Claire Byrne creature could, for instance, begin (just begin, mind) to take the leap from unearned celebrity to the genuine article by cutting back, say, on asking the ‘Million times hollered question’ (and when,Mr. Adams, will you stop deleting your past life?) and start posing a curved ballsy q. such as:
-Tell me, Tess of D’Villiers, why do you continue to be so silent about the goings on in the Glenanne Farm Centre for Peace Studies?
Tess of D’Villiers is, of course, shorthand for David Cameraman’s Nuncio in Norneveland. Hardy woman.
The Russian Embassy in the FSS is located on Orwell Road, Dublin 6. Back on the day which has since gone down in infamy as Bloody Wednesday in 1972 when the British Embassy in Merrion Square when whoosh ! in a flash of spontaneous combustion, it has always been a puzzle to Perkie’s inner housing executive type that it relocated to Merrion Road rather than to the rather more appropriate, Orwell Road.
But, one suppose, old habits dye hard: once one has Merrion kissed the Quaker’s wife, one wants to continue doing so.
Speaking of infamy:
The villains have turned into heroes
The heroes have all turned into heels;
The dealers all wanna be lovers
And the lovers all wanna do deals’.
One wonders if Gerry A ever feels tempted to quote Kenneth Williams’ legendary red line as Julie Caesar in ‘Carry on, Cleo’ : ‘Infamy ! Infamy ! They all have it in for me !’
(Opps ! that should read Julius Caesar in ‘Carry on, Leo’).
Back in the good old days when good old George Orwell was still in the land of the misgiving good referees were just like good haircuts, they went unnoticed.
Things,alas, tend to get ordered somewhat differently these benighted, enlightened days.
Celebrities of the unearned variety tend to end up on the glam end of microphones more often than the far scarcer, genuine variety.
In an interview which the Claire Byrne creature gave (yes, G-A-V-E !) in January of this year, she ochoned agus ochoned into the microphone:
-Due to financial commitments I cannot afford to be a stay at home mum to my two kids.
Not only is it a world-gone crazy cotillion but the Mumifcation of the Free Southern Stateen continues apace.
–
“Tess of D’Villiers is, of course, shorthand for David Cameraman’s Nuncio in Norneveland. Hardy woman” – gets today’s cigar. Go h-iontach! And as for Orwell Road – I lived in Palmerston Villas when I was a student at UCD – Orwell Road was near there, if I remember aright. To show you how uninterested in politics I was then: I didn’t know the Ruskies had their embassy there. We learn something every day – especially if we read you, Perkin. Grma…
Anyone who can quote Shel Silverstein lyrics in the same breath as “Nuncio in Norneveland” has got to be tight with Sylvia’s Mother, Jude..That’d be Sylvia as in Plath rather than in Hermon….“Is there no way out of the mind?”…Naw. ‘fraid not , Sylvia…..
You lived in Palmerston Villas at one stage, Esteemed Blogmeister?
This truly comes as a shock, and surely qualifies you for the Philip Marlowe Award for Blogmeister of the Year. To be able to walk down those meaningless streets and yet emerge meaningful oneself is verily some achievement.
For, you do know that there have been more devotees of the Dismal Science resident in Palmerston, Dublin 6 than one could possibly shake a budget surplus at. Including, (gulp), the most dismal of the lot: The Old Maid in the FitzGerald Garret.
PS Not only is the Russian Embassy located on Orwell Road but back in the late Seventies their staff included a Press Attache, name of – stand by for a Ripley moment – Comrade Smirnoff.
Perkie’s inner comer in from the cold knows this because he once encountered Comrade S. (say no more, Seymour) down in the nearby Dropping Well pub on the banks of the antedeluvian Dodder River.
While Comrade Smirnoff quaffed a glasnost of Guinness (though his first name wasn’t Arthur) Comrade Warbeck’s choice of poison was a wee Scotch (though his name was – and still isn’t -neither Black nor White.
It seems like only the Roaring Ruairi Quinns o.d. on the old Smirnoff to show off justt how, erm, Socialtist they still are in their Seventies. (Did you catch his frantic antics last night?)
Budem zdorovy !
Alas – that was a pleasure I did not take to bed…
And Comrade Smirnoff was a much more amenable type than his successor Comrade Buggeroff!
What’s wrong with our Gerry’s teeth anyway – or his beard? That’s what I want to know…
I disgree, Sam. Let’s have a huge argument – no, two, one for the beard, one the teeth. Or maybe…How many teeth do people have? Argue over each one. Very important to be thorough in focus on such important matters…
Someone on BBC`s Newsnight programme suggested he should have `pretended` to know the words, and bluff. Sing a song at a second world war memorial (another!) in honour of a family who supported Hitler. That says all you need to know, why anyone would want to sing a song of devotion to a queen anyway? Is he one of Harry`s bees? The British militaristic/jingoistic mind set is yet another reason why I want the British ruling class out of Ireland.
Gerry wisely follows the old republican mantra “whatever you say say nothing”.Others foolishly deviated from this line to tell all to the likes of Ed Baloney and now find themselves in deep trouble.
I’ve no time for the IRA, Neil. Never had. For me there is absolutely no justification for killing someone. But I must challenge you on you’re use of the word sectarianism. The IRA killed catholic members of the RUC just as quick, if not quicker than Protestants. They were serving the Crown. It seems to me that religious affiliation meant nothing to them.
So your point your making is not only were they sectarian they were also psychopaths nice people indeed!
one hugs trees and one hugs rabbits,nobody takes them serious.
This from Michael Corr
From Michael Corr
Asking Gerry Adams if he was in the IRA has to be the stupidest question any journalist can ask.
It is really lazy journalism and the default position of reporters who have run out of ideas and have nothing else to ask.
After 30+ years of pressing Adams on the same issue why would any journalist now think that they are going to get a different answer?
Perhaps all these journalists should remember May 2014 when Gerry Adams was arrested and held for four days by the PSNI who interviewed him 33 times about membership of the IRA – this happened despite Adams having worked tirelessly for decades for peace.
I don’t know if Gerry Adams was in the IRA, and I don’t care – like the nearly half a million people who have voted for Sinn Fein. But I do know that if he ever acknowledged being a member he would be arrested immediately and jailed: and that’s just one of the reasons why it is a really stupid question.
So he didn’t sing the British national anthem, dead on Jeremy good on ya; you stuck to your principals, nice one.
However, he faces a dilemma. As I understand it he has decided to take up a position on the Privy Council. Now should he follow through with this, he’ll be required to kneel down in front of the Queen, kiss her hand and swear to her that will be a ‘true and faithful servant’.
Now should this come to pass, then I think it’s only right to question his principals. The way I see it; he’d be a hypocrite. And given his new position as Labour leader, I believe this type of hypocrisy does matter. He’d lose my respect as a republican. It’ll be interesting to see how he deals with this one.
It should come as no surprise that there are people on our nearest neighbouring island who do not subscribe to the divine right of a monarch to rule or to amass wealth and property. Neither should it come as a surprise to suggest that the Secretary of State is not a neutral participant in the talk about talks in Stormont. While some individuals curry favour by excavating comments made aeons ago, Mr Corbyn continues to challenge Tory austerity policies. Let us not forget the rogues and renegades who precipitated the on-going financial crisis, they remain part of the problem. Mr Corbyn et al are part of the solution.
Nothing surprising there jude, the anti shinner anti nationalist agenda continues, always was the case even before Sinn Féin gained electoraly in the south. You never hear an RTE interviewer ask Pete if he’s still a member of The Ulster Resistance, or what nationalists are to make of both unionists parties forming groups with loyalist terrorists who are still active, killing recruiting etc when they want to force a sectarian march through catholic areas. The media in the north aren’t much better though, but not surprising given where TV Mike came from.
Terrorism, neill, is a methodology, not a political philosophy
Not true Jude at all.
Well it is, you know. Michael Collins was horrified by the events in the GPO in 1916 – because the methodology was stupid. So he turned to guerrilla warfare/hit and run/terrorism. It worked quite well.